Office Max!

Fabrice Grinda provides some good methods to valuate an early-stage company.

From my experience, financial models you write before your business has launched are not worth the paper they are written on in the startup world. They might be helpful to you to understand your gross and net margins and the scalability of the business, but beyond that their revenue and profit predictability is so low that you cannot base your valuation on them.

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Read more from this blogger: Startup Valuations

Some great tips here on how to start up a business at home.

Computer and software based businesses are definitely less capital intensive to start up. Lucky for me, since I would have needed to work full time for someone else for a while otherwise.

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Read more from this blogger: brianhogg.ca � New Business

From The Small Business Start-Up Guide, some truisms for start-ups.

These truisms can help guide you in starting and running your small business. They represent lessons learned by entrepreneurs like yourself. The road to success will be much smoother by being aware of the messages they represent. Most of the truisms are accompanied with a supporting vignette based on a real business experience.

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If you live in Miami, look in the Herald for help with your small business.

“We’ve also included all 12 installments of our series on a small-business start-up, The Cereal Bowl, which serves up dozens of varieties of cereal at a restaurant across from the University of Miami campus. There’s also a Cereal Bowl slide show.

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Read more from this blogger: Miami Herald focusing on small business

I've started using the scanner feature to back up all my documents to disk.

Whether to rent, lease or buy a copy machine is up to you. But virtually no business can get by without file copies. Carbon paper means a loss of efficiency, and running over to the corner shop to get copies is going to cost you time and money, so be sure to fit some sort of copier into your business start-up costs. If impossible at the very first, use the old carbon paper - you must have a copy for your file.

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Read more from this blogger: Running a consultancy.

Good idea to start your business at home where it's cheap. And get your office supplies at Office Max where it's cheap, too:

Much of those home based businesses you see advertised are scams. There are ads out there for being envelope stuffers. You call for more information, and come to find out they want you to send in a “one-time processing fee.” I don’t believe in that, much like I don’t believe in renting additional office space, buying additional office furniture, and paying additional utilities for my business. I just use my home. The fact of the matter is that you can start any business you want with virtually no capital. It just takes asking...

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Read more from this blogger: Starting Your Own Business

A great story on starting a business. No, you don't need a garage. But maybe a trip to Office Max?

I’ve been in business for myself since 1999 owning my own web design firm in Hawaii. Is was originally suppose to be a hobby while I recover from knee surgery. However, I realized that in this extremely competitive job market to pursue my passion, which is human resources, was to run my own business, thus creating my own career. So shut down Raging Bull Designs in Hawaii, and moved back to Florida. Now re-established it as Webitude eBusiness, and operate it out of my home. However, I do not classify it as “home-business.” For example,...

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Read more from this blogger: Starting Your Own Business

Setting up credit card transactions on a web site is a hassle. This blogger describes the trade-offs between acquiring a merchant account to process credit cards and using a third party.

We all know that accepting credit cards is the key to online sales. Unfortunately, most merchants are unaware that acquiring a merchant account can actually save them money. And in many cases, big money!

For this experiment, we will use a fictional character named Bill. Bill owns and operates a great online resources for marketing tools and resources. Bills website is a membership based website, and therefore could potentially be approved for both third party processing and an internet merchant account.

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Read more from this blogger: Merchant Service - Third Party Credit Card Processing Vs. Having Your Own Merch

When you start and business and need to conserve cash, a lease is a good idea. This blogger tells you how. You may be able to lease equipment and furniture available at Office Max, too.

It seems as if the bills will never end when you are launching a new business venture. Most new ventures do not make money immediately and it's difficult to keep paying bills when you don't have money coming in the door. One area in which you can cut down on the large start-up costs is by leasing office equipment and peripherals such as phones or computer systems.

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Read more from this blogger: graphic savings group blog: Why Lease as a Startup?

When Jeff Evans started Linc Mechanical, Office Max helped him get off the ground.

Just a few years ago, Jeff Evans was running to Office Max to get basic office supplies for his start-up company, Linc Mechanical Services.

Now he's busy grabbing large contracts for the company, which has grown to more than $3 million in annual revenue and 18 employees.

A large part of that growth has come in the last year, after the company made some major changes to the way it goes after and services contracts. The changes have cut costs and made the company more efficient. As a result, revenue doubled, from $1.5 million in 2003 to $3 million in 2004. And it was able to land a lucrative contract servicing and maintaining the heating and cooling systems at three local Delphi Corp. plants.

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Read more from this blogger: Changes for the better - 2005-03-14

Even though this is an old article, it's still a good idea to give students training through an Office Max-like environment.

MACTECH, a full-service office store based on the “Office Max/Kinko’s” concept, is located in Detroit’s David Mackenzie High School and is operated by its students. Growing out of The Detroit Compact Program, a consortium of businesses and corporations working with middle and high schools, this student-run business is part of the high school’s Business Services and Technology Department and the Tech Prep Partnership 2000 Consortium’s curriculum development initiative.

Students have an opportunity to work in an entrepreneurial business setting and be trained in the “office store” concept while attending school. The two-year Office Technology and Production curriculum offers classes in two-hour blocks, designed to provide practical work experience in office and computer skills, communication arts, accounting, sales, product services and advertising. Asof September 1998, 75 students are participating in this program.

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Read more from this blogger: Education in India: Students run a business as part of their curriculum without getting paid